Vietnam lacks chief engineers capable of completely designing a chip.

This morning, April 17, at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, a workshop on scientific and technological research orientation and human resource development to serve Vietnam's semiconductor industry took place.

One of the topics that delegates focused on discussing was the current state of human resources serving the semiconductor chip industry. Many delegates pointed out that Vietnam lacks chief engineers, engineers capable of designing a complete chip.

Professor Tran Hong Thai, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology (2nd from left), chaired the discussion session of the workshop.

According to Associate Professor Pham Tran Vu, Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, there are currently more than 40 companies nationwide operating in chip-related activities, with about 5,600 engineers.

Most of the FDI companies, there are only 2 Vietnamese companies, Viettel and FPT, and most of them do testing and IC design for the frontend (conceptual design) and backend (physical design).

Vietnamese engineers are only good at one design stage, lacking chief engineers capable of completely designing a chip.

Associate Professor Pham Tran Vu, Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology

According to Associate Professor Vu, there are many stages in the process of designing a microchip. Among them, the principle design stage is the most difficult, requiring engineers to be trained in advanced training programs (post- graduate ), but very few Vietnamese engineers can do this stage.

Vietnamese engineers mainly work in the physical design stage, which means following the requirements of conceptual design engineers. "This stage requires a lot of human resources, but creates little added value," Associate Professor Vu said.

Semiconductor chip companies have a hard time recruiting people.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Cuong, Head of Semiconductor Technology Department of Viettel Group, also said that besides technology issues, human resources are a constant top concern of Viettel's leaders.

Viettel has been promoting research and development (R&D) activities since 2010, and has now built a team of more than 3,000 engineers. For microchip engineers alone, Viettel currently has about 50 high-quality engineers. For microchip engineers, Viettel recruits annually with the goal of recruiting 20-30 people each year, but in reality, it only recruits more than 10 people each year.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Cuong, Head of Semiconductor Technology Department, Viettel Group

"To have the current number of 50 engineers, we have spent many years recruiting. Many people come in, many people leave. But in general, recruiting is relatively difficult. Out of 10 applications, we can only recruit 1. It could also be due to the nature of our operations, because we do all the steps, so the human resources required are relatively high and relatively wide," Mr. Cuong explained.

"Recruitment in general is difficult (not just for microchip engineers - PV). Because around the 50 high-quality engineers mentioned above, there will be at least 50 people serving. Designing and manufacturing chips is only a part. Once the chip is available, it must be tested to put the product into practical use, so currently we have a team of more than 100 engineers working on semiconductor chips," said Mr. Cuong.

Mr. Cuong also said: "Of the 50 high-quality engineers, 10 are from abroad (many of whom used to work in large companies). They work in stages that require very high qualifications. As for the engineers recruited domestically, they work in jobs that require lower qualifications. Some of them have started at the module mastering level. For engineers trained in Vietnam to be able to do this, it requires a long process. Hopefully, in the near future, we will be able to train people who can participate more deeply and fully in the design stages of digital chips and high-frequency chips."

According to Mr. Cuong, with the ambition to achieve the position of top 20 chip design companies in Asia by 2035, Viettel needs human resources of more than 500 engineers by 2030, more than 1,000 engineers by 2035. Of which, more than 20% of the staff have a master's degree or higher.

In terms of professional structure, about 10% of engineers participate in chip system architecture design, 30% of engineers participate in front-end design, 40% of engineers participate in verification, and 20% of engineers participate in back-end design. "This is a very challenging goal," said Mr. Cuong.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/viet-nam-thieu-nhung-ky-su-truong-co-kha-nang-thiet-ke-hoan-chinh-mot-con-chip-185240417152930507.htm